Author: Christopher P. Duffy

When it begins in early August in Los Angeles, the 2008 HollyShorts short film festival will open with “X”, a film written and directed by actor Josh Brolin (“No Country For Old Men, “American Gangster”).<br> A 15-minute film,“X” tells the story of an inmate who, after he escapes prison and becomes reunited with his daughter, searches for her murdered mother to exhume her body and give her a decent burial. The film has recently been shown at the South By Southwest Film Festival In Austin, Texas. “I’m honored that HollyShorts has chosen my directorial debut film X to open their…

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Today the Tribeca Film Festival announced its slate of selected projects for its annual program, Tribeca All Access.In its fifth year, Tribeca All Access is designed to promote relationships between filmmakers in underrepresented communities and prominent executives in the film industry. Running for six days throughout the festival, the 2008 All Access program takes place from April 21 through April 26th, and will present 37 new projects, its largest showing to date. The Tribeca Film festival will run from April 23rd to May 4th.The 37 narrative and documentary filmmakers whose works were selected for the All Access program will be…

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Beginning tomorrow, Mumbai, India, will play the host to 1500 Indian and 500 foreign delegates of the media and entertainment sector when the 2008 Frames convention begins. In its ninth year, the Frames convention , held by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), is the largest global convention in Asia that deals with the Business of entertainment.The three-day convention will feature discussions and speeches by a number of big players in the global entertainment industry. The producer of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, Barrie Osborne, will give the keynote address on the theme of the…

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In the years to come, Angola will lay the groundwork for a more prolific system of film production, says the country’s minister of culture, Bonaventura Cardoso. In an interview with Angola Press Mr. Cardoso states that the construction of a Cinema Campus will help spur the production and distribution of Angolan cinema. The Campus will be under construction from 2009 to 2013. Mr. Cardoso tells Angola Press, “A lot of things will change with the construction of the [Cinema Campus] and the image of cinema in Angola shall change completely. There is a need to have hope that we shall…

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Audiences in New York City will have the opportunity to view Japanese filmmaker Koreyoshi Kurahara’s 1962 film, ”Glass Johnny: Looks Like a Beast”, for the first time with English subtitles when it is presented by the New York Japan Society on April 4th. Part of its monthly screening program that focuses on 1960’s action films from the Japanese Nikkatsu Studio, “Glass Johnny: Looks Like a Beast” is Kurahara’s homage to Frederico Fellini’s 1954 classic, “La Strada”. In this Japanese version of Fellini’s plot, Actress Izumi Ashikawa stars as the carefree victimized girl in the role originally inhabited by Guilietta Masina.The…

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The British born author Arthur C. Clarke, best known for his science-fiction writing, passed away today at the age of 90. Clarke was the author of over 100 fiction and non-fiction books and short stories, and was best known to the world of cinema for his groundbreaking and visionary 1968 screenplay and corresponding novel, “2001: A Space Odyssey”. Clarke collaborated with director Stanley Kubrick in writing the screenplay to the film, and the book was subsequently published after the release its release in 1968. The idea for the screenplay was initially loosely based on a 1948 short story of Clarke’s,”…

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One of the world oldest film festivals, the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival , will honor Mexican director Arturo Ripstein with a retrospective of his works when the annual festival begins its 43rd program in July. The festival will take place in the Czech Republic town of Karlovy Vary from July 4th to July 12th. A writer and director for over forty years, Ripstein began his work in the early 1960’s as an assistant to Luis Buñuel on the film “El angel exterminador”. Since then he has made over fifty films and has been renown in international film circles. His…

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Today the Tribeca Film festival announced its lineup of short films that will be featured in the upcoming 2008 program. Along with the wide slate of feature films selected, the annual lower Manhattan festival will include 79 short films that will be incorporated in 11 different thematic programs. The selection of short films at this year’s festival will be representative of international filmmakers from 30 different countries, and feature a disparate thematic range. Indeed, the 11 thematic programs that makeup the short flims have wide range in subject, including the effects that humans have on the environment, the complexities of…

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“Secret Sunshine”, the South Korean film by director Lee Chang Dong, won a slate of awards, including the Best Film, at the Asian Film Awards held today in Hong Kong. Along with the Best film Award, the film, about a woman who moves to a small town with her child to in search of a fresh start after her husband dies, also took home two other major prizes. Lee Chang Dong was awarded as Best Director, and actress Jeon Do-Yeon took home the Best Actress award for her portrayal of the widow, Shin-ae. Veteran actor Tony Leung won the Best…

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Contemporary Polish cinema will be showcased late next month in Los Angeles at the Annual Polish Film Festival . Presented by the Polish American Film Society, the festival, in its 9th year, will include a wide range of Polish film, including documentaries, animated and live action shorts, as well as a strong slate of feature films. On April 24th an opening night gala at the Directors Guild of America Theater will kick things off, and will include an awards ceremony and a screening of Tomasz Konecki’s “Lejdis”. The festival will conclude on May 4th. Created to bring the works of…

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